The Economic Legislation and Ethics of the Medieval European Church

Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.2, 2018

The Economic Legislation and Ethics of the Medieval European Church

(Abstract)

Zhao Lihang

The medieval Christian church promulgated numerous economic laws through its Ecumenical Councils. The laws, which centered on the protection of church property, limited the economic activity of the clergy and regulated the church’s economic relations with the secular world. The unique nature of canon law meant that its implementation could invoke a double penalty: punishment by God and punishment by the secular world. The church’s economic legislation was strongly utilitarian and served an immediate purpose: it aimed to keep church property inviolate as far as possible rather than to simply extend theological ethics. On one hand, theological ethics provided theoretical support for the legitimacy of church legislation; on the other, it expanded the legal efficacy and jurisdiction of canon law, enabling the church’s economic legislation to break through its own limitations and exert an extensive influence on the religious and secular communities.